


Like All Little Children Love Pennies

by butwhatifdragons



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians & Related Fandoms - All Media Types, Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan, The Heroes of Olympus - Rick Riordan
Genre: Alternate Universe, Angst, Beaches, Car Accidents, M/M, Magical Realism, Road Trips, Vacation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-18
Updated: 2018-06-18
Packaged: 2019-05-24 20:39:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,683
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14961777
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/butwhatifdragons/pseuds/butwhatifdragons
Summary: When Nico is feeling particularly self-destructive, he thinks of Lillydale Beach, the little blip on an old, folded up map he keeps stowed away in the glove compartment of his beaten-up truck. He thinks of the crisp blue water, of the pearly white sand, and of the way it was impossible to distinguish the ocean from the sky on the horizon.Mostly, though, he thinks of Will, of that weekend they spent holed up in a cheap motel room Nico had decorated with two dozen wildflowers he had picked up on the side of the road on their way down because he couldn’t afford anything else, and of that old well on the edge of the beach, just steps from their motel room.





	Like All Little Children Love Pennies

**Author's Note:**

> I wanted to title this “The Fic I Almost Didn’t Finish Because of the Ending” but that seemed too much like the title to a Fall Out Boy song. So, instead, the title comes from Alan Jackson’s “Like Red on a Rose,” but only because that is what I wanted to title it way back when this thing was a three-parter (with a much happier ending). ~~Maybe (with enough interest) one day I’ll write the other two parts…~~

_Will was an enigma. He liked his tea sweetened with so much sugar that it probably shouldn’t have been called tea anymore, just fancy sugar water. He liked his coffee black, though, so strong that the mere smell of it threatened to keep Nico up for days. He could sit in silence for hours on end, staring at nothing in the distance, but when he picked up his guitar—an old, beaten-up one that he had spotted at a flea market and had to buy, even though it was horribly out of tune and missing half of its strings—he sang his heart out, and Nico wondered if Will had ever been truly quiet._

_He loved early mornings, watching the sun peek over the horizon for the first time that day and seeing all of the beautiful colors begin to stain the pitch black landscape bright. He would sometimes wake up just before dawn to see the new day in through the window of their eastern-facing window. Wrapped up in the curve of Nico’s body, Will would quietly profess_ life couldn’t get any better _. Nico agreed with him, because, back then, it really couldn’t._

 

The trip was Nico’s idea. Will had been working himself to the bone at his job, and he was stressed all of the time, and some nights, he didn’t even make it home before Nico went to bed. He would crawl under the covers hours after Nico had warmed them, his entire body exhausted, but he would never fail to press a soft, chaste kiss to Nico’s temple.

So Nico spent months saving up for this tiny little getaway. It was the middle of July, the peak of the tourist season, so the best he could do in the end was a three-night booking at a low-end motel just off the beach. He made Will ask for two days off—a Friday and the following Monday—so that they could spend a glorious seventy-two hours, at the very least, in paradise, or as close to paradise as Nico’s barely-above-minimum wage job down at the radio station could give them.

“Aren’t you going to tell me where we’re going?” asked Will the moment Nico pulled out onto the street.

Their things were carefully packed away in suitcases in the bed of the pickup. Nico had told Will to pack for somewhere warm and sunny, to bring plenty of sunscreen, and to probably take a pair of swimming trunks as well. Will had some idea of where they were going, but he didn’t know their precisely destination.

Will always liked knowing exactly what he was getting into. He hated it when Nico approached things without a care in mind. Nico lived his life one decision to the next, never looking beyond what he had, especially now that he had Will, because he couldn’t imagine life would be any better than it was right then.

“It’s a surprise,” said Nico, and Will laughed like it was the answer he was expecting. “Pick out some road trip music. You always choose the best.”

Will did. That was the thing. When, on the odd occasion, Nico was put in charge of picking songs down at the radio station, he always conferred with Will first. Will always knew the best list of songs to play for a listening audience at three AM on Saturday nights. It was only natural, therefore, that Will be in charge of their road trip music.

“You’re just buttering me up,” said Will, still laughing. “We’re probably just going to circle downtown or something, aren’t we? And then spend the rest of the weekend locked in the apartment?”

Nico grinned over at Will, briefly, because he was driving. Butterflies raged in Nico’s stomach. He loved Will. He had never loved anybody more than he loved Will.

“You got me,” he said, jokingly, with a laugh.

He turned his attention back to the road before them. He drove with left hand and, with his right, he reached across the console to link his fingers through Will’s. Excitement buzzed underneath his skin. He could hardly contain himself, eager for the beautiful, surprised expression that would no doubt blossom across Will’s face at the first sight of the magnificent blue ocean.

Will started with something upbeat, a Katy Perry song that had the both of them screaming at their top of their lungs along to lyrics of “Teenage Dream.” It was just them, the open road, and Will’s choice in music. Life couldn’t get better.

 

Only, three hours later, life got worse.

Nico pulled into an old gas station on the side of the highway, stopping in front of one of the pumps. Nico cut the engine, and the music playing on the radio, a Fall Out Boy song, “Young Volcanoes,” cut off right in the middle of the chorus. They had been driving on E for the past thirty or so miles, and they were lost. They were so lost, in fact, that Nico wasn’t even sure which state he was in, let alone county, and to top it all off, both Nico and Will had lost cell phone service about fifty miles back.

“Sure you don’t want to tell me where we’re going?” asked Will, grinning. Unlike Nico, he wasn’t at all cranky because they had been driving in what was probably the wrong direction since they got off the interstate an hour ago. “Unless this is your attempt to disorient me to keep me from guessing where we’re going.”

Nico groaned. It nearly echoed in the cab of the truck. He dropped his head to the steering wheel, feeling a headache coming on.

“D’you want to pump gas or go inside to see if this place has a map?” he asked, trying to keep the annoyance out of his voice. It wasn’t Will’s fault that he had gotten them tee-totally lost in the middle of nowhere. He shouldn’t take it out on Will. “And maybe some aspirin?”

Will laughed. He was entirely too cheerful for Nico’s self-depreciation. He leaned over and placed a wet, sloppy kiss on Nico’s cheek. It made a reluctant smile tug at the corners of Nico’s lips.

“I’ll get you your favorite candy bar, too. How about that?”

“I love you,” said Nico, tilting his head toward Will to fully smile at him. As soon as he met Will’s eyes, though, the smile faded from his lips. He frowned, disappointment welling up inside of his chest as he remember exactly why they were parked at a run-down gas station in the middle of nowhere. “I’m sorry this whole trip kinda sucks so far.”

Will furrowed his eyebrows, caught off-guard and completely confused.

“What are you talking about? This has been amazing so far. I mean, we’re roadtripping, and, yes, we’re lost, and, no, you won’t tell me where we’re actually going, but this has been fun. I can’t imagine how it could have been any better if we weren’t lost.”

“Well, we’d probably be there by now, for one,” retorted Nico, though, truthfully, they wouldn’t have been. At the very least, they would have been much closer to the coast than they were right now.

“We’re just taking the scenic route. All’s good.”

Will winked obnoxiously at him then climbed out of the cab of the truck. Nico watched him walk into the tiny convenient store before Nico himself realized that he needed to get out, too. They wouldn’t get much farther if Nico didn’t fill up the gas tank right now.

Nico climbed out. His knees ached from sitting down for so long. He stretched his stiff limbs then walked over to the pump. It looked ages old. There was one nozzle, and Nico had to flip the switch to choose the regular unleaded option. Slowly, the numbers began to spin up as his gas tank began to fill. When the gas cut off, Nico returned the nozzle to the holder and before he headed inside to pay.

The inside of the station looked as decrepit as the outside. There was central air conditioning, only a window air unit that spit out air which was only slightly cooler than the humid outdoors. The man on the other side of the counter had yellow sweat stains underneath the armpits of his white t-shirt. There was a sheen of sweat across the man’s forehead, and Nico himself thought he might start sweating if he spent any longer in here.

Will was finishing up his purchase. Nico got in line behind him, not that there was anybody else in the station. The convenient store sold maps, apparently, and also aspirin. After the man handed Will his change—an entire two dollars and three cents—Will stepped out of the way with his purchase so that Nico could pay for the gas.

Once outside, Will handed Nico the tiny packet of aspirin and a cold can of soda. Nico thanked him gratefully, popping the pills into his mouth then washing them down with a big gulp. It would be another half of an hour before the medicine kicked in, but, already, the pounding ache behind his forehead felt like it was beginning to ease.

They climbed into the cab of the truck, and Nico asked for the map. Will handed him a bar of chocolate instead. Nico blinked down at the candy bar in confusion.

“How is this going to help me?”

“It’s my bargaining chip,” said Will, grinning mischievously. “You don’t get the map unless you tell me where we’re going.”

“Why give me the chocolate? A bargain implies that you’re giving me something in exchange for something else.”

“Exactly. I gave you chocolate. Now, give me a location.”

“Will.”

“Nico.”

“It’s meant to be a surprise,” said Nico, a tad petulantly.

“It has been—a surprise to be lost,” said Will, grinning. “Now, tell me where we’re going or you can go back in and buy yourself another map—providing, of course, that I didn’t purchase the last one.”

Nico sighed. This wasn’t an argument he was going to win with Will, mostly because he really didn’t want to go back inside of the store to buy a map and Will knew as much. He reached into the console and pulled out a pen.

“Gimme the map.”

“I don’t think you are understanding the parameters of my bargain. I’m not giving you the map,” said Will, stubbornly.

“I’m going to circle the place, all right? Give me the map and let me have at least this.”

Will eyed Nico suspiciously, but, in the end, he handed over the map. Will could never deny Nico anything, and Nico could never lie to Will, so Nico carried through with his promise. He pressed the tip of the black ball point pen to the paper map, drawing a lopsided circle around their destination. He noted, as he duly handed Will back the map, that they had gone at least an hour and a half in the wrong direction.

Will squinted his eyes at the map. After a moment, he brought the map closer to his face as if he feared his eyes had been deceiving him. Slowly, he shook his head. His gaze darted up to meet that of Nico, and Nico forced himself to look back, anticipation strumming through his body at Will’s reaction.  

“Lillydale?” said Will, a grin blossoming on his cheeks. “You’re taking me to Lillydale?!”

Will’s reaction was even better than Nico had expected. The grin on Will’s lips twinkled in his eyes. He practically threw the map in the floor to fling himself across the console at Nico, even though it would have been much easier to just lift the console up and scoot across. He wrapped his arms around Nico’s neck and placed a series of sloppy kisses across Nico’s skin until he reached Nico’s mouth, and he kissed that, too.

“I take it you approve?” asked Nico, a moment later when they parted.

Will didn’t bother leaning back into his seat. Neither did he bother verbally answering Nico’s question. He just pulled Nico back in for another searing kiss. It tasted like the most beautiful _yes_ Nico had ever known.

“Thought you might want the beach,” said Nico once Will extracted himself from Nico and actually sat back in his own seat. Nico shrugged his shoulders as he spoke, dropping his gaze to his lap. He should probably start the truck and pull out of the gas station now, but it wasn’t like there was anybody else queued up for his pump. “You’ve been working so hard lately.”

“Nico, this must cost a fortune.”

“It’s the beach, not Disney World,” retorted Nico, grinning back up at Will. “I saved up—though, don’t get your hopes up for a five-star hotel within spitting distance of the ocean, all right?”

“It’s only going to be a four-star hotel, isn’t it?” asked Will with an unconvincing huff. The smile on his face—the exuberant happiness rolled off him in waves—belied his excitement for the beach, regardless of their quarters. “Fuck the hotel. I mean, Lillydale is supposed to be the most beautiful beach in the entire world! And it’s supposed to have the prettiest sunrise ever! I think I’m in love already!”

“You mean last night when I gave you a blow job and you told me you loved me, that was a lie?” asked Nico, and he turned the key in the ignition. The truck roared to life. He shifted into drive then pressed his foot to the accelerator. They had an hour and a half of lost time to make up. He glanced over at Will.“My entire life is a lie.”

It was a joke, because he knew what Will meant. He knew Will loved him. Will was actually the first of them to say those words. The proclamation had accidently fallen from his drunken lips three weeks after their first date—and there hadn’t been enough alcohol in either of their bodies for Will to take back the words. Will hadn’t even tried to take back the words. He had just stopped and blinked, dumbfounded, his cheeks darkening in a blush. Then he had shrugged and said it again. The next morning, when they were both properly sober and wrapped in one another, he said it one more time just to make sure Nico knew that Will did love him.

“You’re impossible,” said Will.

It didn’t sound like he meant it. He reached for the stereo, turning it up, and Panic! at the Disco’s “Emperor’s New Clothes” came on. He grinned as he sat back in his seat. He pointed in front of them as the pace of the song began to pick up.

“Also, you’re going to miss your exit and get us lost again. It’s this next one.”

 

They didn’t end up missing the exit. They didn’t actually end up getting lost again or taking a detour, except for a brief five-minute stop on the side of the highway about an hour away from the coast. There were fields and fields of beautiful wildflowers on either side of the road. Will _ooh_ ed and _awe_ d at them as they drove by until Nico couldn’t resist any more and pulled over to the shoulder of the road. He turned on his flashers before he climbed out of the truck, and as Will was hollering after him— _what are you doing?!_ —Nico picked two handfuls of the prettiest wildflowers along the right-of-way.

He presented them to Will through the opened window. A gift of pinks and purples and blues, Will grinned so widely that Nico was afraid it will spill off his cheeks. Will gently took the flowers from Nico, set them aside, and grabbed Nico by the collar of his t-shirt. On the radio played an old The Romantics song, “What I Like About You.” Will pulled Nico in for a searing kiss, and Nico laughed his way into it, drunk on his love for Will.

There was a partially empty bottle of water rolling around in the floorboard. Will grabbed it up and took out his pocket knife to cut the plastic in half. It was the best he could do for a makeshift vase. He put the flowers into it, carefully stuffing them down until all of their stems were drowning in the warm water. There was something mystical about the rainbow of wildflowers stuffed into half of a water bottle, and Nico had to force himself to put the truck back in drive before he got out and picked the every single flower in all of the fields.

Will deserved the best.

 

The motel room was as run-down as the pictures on the Internet had suggested it would be. Nico paid with cash, enough for their weekend stay, and he got a shiny metal key in return. He didn’t think motels still even gave out actual keys.

For as decrepit as the motel was, Nico had gotten lucky. Their room had a magnificent, unobstructed view of the ocean. Will dropped his suitcase right by the door, carefully set the wildflowers down in the center of the wobbly table, and made a bee line for the window. Nico followed him into the room at a slower pace. He maneuvered his suitcase on top of the tiny dresser then went about setting up Will’s as well.

“This view is amazing, Nico,” gushed Will. “And it’s facing eastward—we’ll be able to watch the sun rise from the bed!”

“You will,” said Nico, with a snort. Inside, though, he was pleased that Will was so satisfied with their pitiful room. He thanked whatever deity was listening for the good luck of chancing into this particular room instead of a different one across the parking lot. “I think I’ll stick to dreaming about it.”

Will rolled his eyes fondly, though he was still facing the window, so Nico was left to assume that Will must have responded in such a way. It wasn’t that important anyway. Nico walked up behind Will and rested his chin on Will’s shoulder. He wrapped his arms around Will until his hands were folded above Will’s bellybutton. Will sank back into Nico’s hold.

“What d’you want to do first?”

It was a loaded question. They had arrived much later in the day than Nico had originally planned since they had gotten lost. It didn’t really matter, though, since Nico hadn’t really planned anything for this trip other than to take Will to the beach. He figured he would let Will make all of the decisions—that he would let Will pick and choose what they did—because this trip was for Will.

“Whatever you want to do,” answered Nico, open and honest.

He pressed a kiss to the side of Will’s face, the only part he could reach. Will grinned, mischievously, and turned his head so that he could capture Nico’s lips in a proper kiss. Nico melted into it, like he always did whenever he was kissing Will. He couldn’t get enough of it. Neither could, but the need for air eventually drove them apart. Even then, Will only drew back enough to draw air into his lungs and no farther.

“You’re going to regret that, di Angelo,” teased Will.

Nico laughed.

“I’ll never regret anything as long as I’m with you.”

 

Will wanted to go swimming in the ocean. They did that first thing. Nico lugged a bag full of beach towels and bottles of water and an extra large bottle of sunscreen all the way down to the beach outside of the motel. The beach was crowded, as it was mid-July, but they found themselves a nice little spot right in the sand to lay their towels.

Nico plopped down on his towel and reached for the sunscreen. He was shirtless, as was Will. He could already feel his pale skin start to burn. They had barely stepped outside for more than five minutes. Nico cursed his fair complexion as he rubbed the lotion all over the places that he could reach.

“Gimme that, and turn over,” commanded Will.

Nico was always easy for Will’s requests. He trusted Will was his entire life. He loved Will, and when Will said jump, Nico didn’t even hesitate long enough to say how far. He just jumped. Now was no different. He ceded the bottle of sunscreen to Will and flipped onto his stomach. He could feel the heat from the warmed sand through his towel.

Will sat down on his back, right on top of Nico’s butt, and he started working the cool lotion into Nico’s reddening skin. Will’s touch was gentle like the lover he was. He caressed across Nico’s skin, spreading the lotion until every single centimeter was covered in a layer of protection. When he was finished, he insisted Nico do the same to him, even though his already tanned skin offered more resistance to the hot sun than Nico’s did.

When Will, too, was covered in sunscreen, he pressed a kiss to the corner of Nico’s lips, too eager for the ocean to bother with a proper kiss, and he raced to the water’s edge. Nico laughed after him, following him at slower pace.

Will looked beautiful in the sunlight with a horizon of water beyond him. Will looked beautiful all of the time, of course, but there was something majestic about the way Will’s freckled skin contrasted with the crisp blue of the ocean. Nico could have written odes to Will’s beauty.

But Nico swam with him instead.

 

They swam for hours until the sun began to sink beneath the watery horizon, and Will dragged Nico up to their towels on the beach to watch it go down.

Nico’s skin was red-hot to the touch despite the numerous applications of sunscreen Will had laboriously applied. The burn would sink in some over night, Nico knew, but, for now, it was mildly uncomfortable. That didn’t stop him from curling into Will’s sun-warmed arms. Nico pressed a soft kiss to Will’s jaw then laid his head against Will’s chest, and, together, they watched as the last of the yellow sun sank beneath the dark blue ocean.

 

The night was thick around them when they finally stood up to leave the beach. Nico heaved the bag of their belongings onto his sun-kissed shoulder, wincing as it scraped against his sensitive skin. Will smiled fondly at Nico’s chivalry but took the bag from him nonetheless. Nico wanted to argue—wanted to say that this was Will’s trip, so Will shouldn’t have to do any heavy lifting—but Will silenced him with a kiss that tasted like the sunset.

Nico settled for holding Will’s hand as they made their way toward their run-down motel.

“I love you, you know,” said Will, squeezing Nico’s hand tight as if it would make Will’s words more real somehow. “Like, I love you so much that sometimes I can’t believe you’re real. That you’re mine.”

Nico smiled over at Will, letting Will’s profession of love wash over him. Nico would never, ever grow tired of hearing Will say those three words to him, just like he would never, ever grow tired of saying them to Will. He understood what Will meant. Sometimes, Nico fell asleep wrapped up in Will’s arms with so much love brimming in his chest for Will that he was terrified he might wake up the next morning and find out that Will was nothing more than a figment of Nico’s imagination.

“I love you, too,” said Nico, because he couldn’t not say it. He would spend the rest of his life saying those words to Will if he could—and there was a tiny black box hidden away in the pocket of Nico’s suitcase right now that might, indeed, allow Nico to spend the rest of his life loving Will. “You’re the best thing that has ever happened to me.”

Will smiled, because he liked hearing that. He liked knowing that Nico treasured him the most out of everything and everybody. There was a time when Will wasn’t treasured at all. There was a time when he didn’t know Nico, but that was in the past. Now, Nico made it a habit to remind Will that he was loved, because Nico knew how much the sentiment meant.

“Oh—hey! A wishing well!” said Will, suddenly, and he tugged Nico off the beaten path toward a rickety, old stone well on the edge of the beach, right where the sand turned into rocks. “Nico, we have to make a wish!”

Nico let himself be dragged. There was something magical about Will’s excitement, even more magical than the mystical well. Will slowed to a stop right in front of it, and Nico stepped up shoulder-to-shoulder with Will, their hands still linked. Will peered over the edge of the well, looking down inside of it.

“Think of all of the wishes in there that have come true!” said Will, grinning up at Nico. “There must be thousands!”

Nico chuckled. He was so, so in love with Will that he had to kiss him right now. Will’s grin faded into the kiss, and when they parted, the grin remained behind.

“I’m not sure that’s how that works,” said Nico, gently. His forehead rested against Will’s. All he could see up close in the dark, moonlit night was the black of Will’s eyes. “It’s just an old well, Will.”

“Make a wish, then,” prompted Will. He pulled back from Nico, and Nico mourned the distance. “Make a wish, and if it comes true, then I’m right.”

“I don’t even have any money on me,” said Nico.

He was clearly not saying no—because that wasn’t a thing he could do to Will—but it was true that he didn’t have a single dime to his name right now. Everything was up in the motel room. They hadn’t needed any money for the beach.

Will frowned for a moment, his excitement dimming. Nico wished he could magic a penny out of thin air right now. He hated it when Will frowned. His entire world dulled a little bit whenever Will was sad or disappointed.

“The change from that gas station!” said Will, gasping.

He stepped back from Nico again, creating more distance between them. He wrestled the bag on his shoulder into his free hand and had to let go Nico with his other hand so that he could dig through the contents. Nico sighed at the loss of contact. Will shot him a rueful grin that made him look even more beautiful in the moonlight.

After a couple of minutes, Will came up victorious. He held out his palm to Nico, showing three shiny pennies. He motioned for Nico to take one of them. Nico did. He was always easy for Will.

“Aren’t you going to make a wish?” asked Nico, feeling silly about holding a gas station penny above an old well.  

 Will grinned, shaking his head. He dropped the pennies back into the bag where it would take another five minutes to pull them back out. He seemed unconcerned with the loss.

“I don’t need to make a wish, now do I? I have everything I could possibly want right here in you.”

“Why am I making a wish? You’re all I could possible want, too.”

“Because,” said Will, stepping forward to press the lightest of kisses against Nico’s lips. It was nothing less than a tease, a promise for something more that had Nico’s toes curling. “I already know the well works.”

Nico chuckled to himself, shaking his head fondly at Will’s argument. He didn’t press his case anymore. Will’s kiss had him eager for the promise of a bed in their future, and Nico knew that the sooner he dropped this penny into the old well, the sooner he could show Will that this was ridiculous. That Nico had all he could ever want or need right here with him, too.

“Don’t forget to make a wish,” murmured Will, smiling gleefully.

Nico chased Will’s lips for another kiss as he let go of the penny and thought, _I wish Will would be this happy for the rest of his life._

 

Despite Nico’s statement yesterday, he was awake for the sunrise the next morning. It was beautiful, streaming in through the curtains of their cheap motel room. The sheet on the bed pooled around Nico’s hips. Will laid in the crook of Nico’s body. They were both naked as they days they were born and were sore from their passion the night before.

“It’s beautiful,” murmured Will, staring out at the sun peaking over the horizon.

His voice was rough from sleep. There was a pillow line running down his left cheek. Nico thought Will was the beautiful one, so he said as much.

“Yeah, you are.”

Will laughed, deep in his throat like it was stolen from him. He tore his gaze away from the sunrise, away from the magnificent purples and pinks and yellows staining the inky night sky daylight blue. He grinned at Nico. It stretched clear across his face. He ducked in to press his lips against Nico’s, and Nico met him halfway, eager for the taste of Will’s kiss.

“’M hungry,” said Nico, when they broke the kiss.

“You’re always hungry,” replied Will, but he was smiling over at Nico like he would go to the end of the Earth if Nico so desired him to. Nico thought it was a little intimidating, how much faith Will put into him, yet Will didn’t seem to mind how much stock he put into Nico, always believing the best in Nico. “I saw a donut shop on our drive down here yesterday. We could drive up and get a dozen donuts and then go for an early morning swim.”

“Aren’t you supposed to wait like an hour after eating before you go swimming?”

“I’ll carry you back to the motel room if you cramp up and can’t move, I swear.”

Nico laughed, but he believed Will. He trusted Will. More than that, maybe, was how his stomach grumbled at the thought of nice, hot, fresh donuts that fell apart between his fingers and melted in his mouth.

He dragged himself away from Will, instantly missing the intimacy they had nurtured between them beneath the first rays of the morning sun. He threw his legs over the side of the bed. His back felt stiff from sleeping on the hard bed all night, so he stretched as he scanned the room for the trail of clothes he and Will had left in their wake just a few hours ago.

He slipped into the shorts he had worn yesterday, as they were not too dirty, and he fished a clean shirt out of his bag. It was old and holey, a piece from Will’s high school days, probably, but it was well-worn, comfortable in only the way an article of clothing so loved could be. By the time he was dressed, Will was already waiting on him by the door, keys in hand.

“They’re had better be some raspberry filled ones,” said Nico, joining Will at the door and pressing a quick kiss to Will’s lips just because he can. It was a brief caress of Nico’s mouth against Will’s, an echo of their passion from the previous night, but the promise of donuts was more powerful than a tumble in the sheets. If only this once.

Nico snatched the keys out of Will’s hand when they parted, and Will immediately tried to take them back.

“This trip is all about treating you, remember?” he said, with a grin, and danced out of Will’s reach all the way to their old, beaten-up truck.

He stopped before the passenger’s side and opened the door for Will to climb in, as if Will was a prince that Nico was duty-bound to serve. The comparison wasn’t that far off. Will was the center of Nico’s whole world. The king of his dreams, of his life, of his love.

Will stood on the curb for a moment, staring at Nico like he was contemplating reaching for the keys again and demanded that he drive. But Nico couldn’t have that. He wanted to treat Will real nice.

“Please,” he said, motioning to the seat.

Will’s resolve crumbled right beneath Nico’s pleading gaze, just like Nico had anticipated it would. Will might have been the center of Nico’s universe, the one point around which Nico’s entire being revolved, but Nico was no less the same for Will. Nico used it to his advantage. These few days were all about Will, about Will unwinding from work, about Nico taking care of him.

Will climbed into the car. He let Nico buckle his seatbelt as if he wasn’t able to do so himself. When Nico pulled back, Will tugged him forward to press their lips together once more.

“Thank you,” he muttered against Nico’s lips, his breath hot and warm, even in the salty summer air around them.

Nico smiled, told Will _anything for you_ , and backed out of the cab, so that he could circle around and climb into the driver’s seat. He buckled his own belt then fired up the engine. It sputtered until it caught its rhythm and purred like a new make. Nico reached for the gearstick, shifted it all the way over then down, and let his left foot off the clutch and his right off the brake. Will laid his hand atop Nico’s on the gearstick, threading their fingers together, as, once they were backed out, Nico shifted the truck into first.

The truck didn’t have air conditioning, or not one that worked whenever they aren’t cruising down the highway, so they had to roll their windows down with the crank on the doors. Nico thought about what kind of donuts the shop would have. About how sweet Will’s mouth was going to taste when Nico kisses him right before Will ran head-first into the ocean. About how pretty Will was going to look drenched in salty ocean water, the sun beating down on his freckled skin.

Nico stopped at the sign at the end of the lot, poised to pull out onto the street. They needed to turn left, but they had to wait on traffic coming from the right, just in front of them. The radio was playing an old Alanis Morissette song, one that was so ingrained into Nico’s memory that he could spot it even though the sound was so low it was drowned out by the noise of life of the coastal city. He was thinking about what it might be called, thinking about asking Will if he could turn the volume up.

He turned his head to ask, his foot pressed firmly on the brake, when he felt the truck jerk. His head slammed against the steering wheel. His foot slipped from the brake. Will caught himself on the dashboard, his hand fleeing Nico’s, his eyes wide with fear.

Nico had just enough time to think _that bastard rear-ended me_ when the world explodes in a cacophony of squeals and grinding and metal screeching against metal, fire flying, metal bending and breaking, and Nico slammed against his door, caught only by his seltbelt, which left harsh burns in its wake. His head smacked against the window, pain exploding behind his eyes, and, instantly, he was stunned, incapable of movement, except to blink open his bleary eyes in the hope to see that Will was fine and breathing and unhurt beside of him.

The crushed front headlight of an unfamiliar truck was what he saw instead. There was a weight on his lap. It took him entirely too long to realize the weight was human. It was Will, and he was bleeding, gushes of blood that ran down Nico’s bare legs.

The whole world went black.

 

Nico woke up to a sterile room, one hand clasped around his own. Everything was white. His head hurt, throbbed like it should have been more painful than it actually felt. For a long moment, he stared at the ceiling, his memory spotty and his mind blank.

Movement in the corner of his eye caught his attention. He had a split second thought of _stop fidgeting, Will_ , except it wasn’t Will holding his hand.

It was Jason.

Jason who was pale as the sheet upon which Nico laid. Jason who was holding onto Nico’s hands like he were anchoring Nico to life itself. Jason who… shouldn’t even be here, hours and hours away from home.

Something settled weightily in Nico’s chest, like how rocks might have felt when one was crushed to death beneath their mighty mass. Nico’s mouth tasted stale, like air that wasn’t his and medicine that nobody ever wanted to take. There was an IV in his left hand, a cast snuggled around his right arm. He knew there were more patches across his body, more aches than he could have catalogued in that moment in time, but his mind worked like he was trying to walk through quicksand. Like he was walking and walking but getting nowhere except pulled under to oblivion.

He forced himself to look around the room, to take in his location. It was a hospital room, nondescript except for the logo on the marker board across from his bed. It was too far away to read properly, but it didn’t matter. Nico knew he wasn’t home by the palm trees visible in the sunset outside of his window.

“Jason,” croaked Nico, his throat dry. His voice came out all twisted and rough, like he had screamed at the top of his lungs for hours straight.

Jason jumped to attention, his gaze flickering down to meet Nico’s. Jason’s eyes were usually bright and shining, high on life as he was, but then they were dull, a sick excuse of blue. Nico’s stomach flip-flopped. The weight in his chest increased tenfold, and when he went to draw in his next breath, it fled his lungs before it even filled them.

“Nico, thank gods you’re awake,” he said, and his hand tightened on Nico’s in unison with his words, like Nico might disappear if Jason didn’t hold on carefully enough.

“Where’s—” Nico had to stop to clear his throat. “Where’s Will?”

Jason sucked in a startled breath, like the answer was stolen straight from him and he couldn’t give it anymore. His eyes were wide, like a deer’s were caught in headlights of Nico’s old truck on the curved, crooked roads that led back to Will’s parents’ place. The weight in Nico’s chest slowly started to spread to his stomach.

Silence hung over them like a dead man’s noose.

“Jason?” he prompted, but Jason was no closer to speaking.

The door creaked open then, and Nico’s attention immediately snapped to the old, wooden door. Hope built in his chest. Surely, it had to be Will, head full of blond hair and a anxious, yet optimistic smile on his youthful face. Surely, it had to be Will coming back from the cafeteria with a cup of bad coffee.

But it wasn’t, and somewhere deep inside Nico’s mind—inside Nico’s heart—he knew it couldn’t be. He just didn’t want to acknowledge it. He didn’t want to accept it. Because if he thought it—if he even dared to consider it—he didn’t—he didn’t know what he was going to do. He didn’t know how he was going to… exist.

It was only Percy, and he looked no better than Jason, tired and worn out with bags underneath his dull, green eyes and wearing an old camp t-shirt backwards, turned inside-out, with the tag tickling his chin. When he spotted Nico awake in the bed, he froze, just inside of the doorway. His eyes went wide, too, like Jason’s had.

“Nico, you’re awake,” he said. His voice was soft yet strained. If Nico didn’t already suspect something was wrong, dead wrong, he would have known with clarity then. Percy never spoke in this voice. He was never quiet, never strained. He was gentle and so sure of himself that Nico sometimes forgot Percy had a past as checkered as Nico’s own.

“Where’s Will?” Nico demanded.

But Percy didn’t answer, either. His gaze snapped to Jason, and Nico looked to Jason, too, but Jason didn’t speak. He couldn’t, Nico could tell that much. Jason was stiff, rigid as an old school wooden ruler, and he wouldn’t meet Nico’s eyes anymore.

“Tell me. Where is Will?” Nico demanded once again, and it came out more like a plea, like a dying declaration of curiosity, and that was what broke the dam.

“Nico, I’m sorry,” said Jason.

“Don’t be sorry,” said Nico.

But Jason was. He was crying, and, when Nico looked over at him, so was Percy.

“Don’t be sorry,” he repeated, looking back at Jason. “Tell me where Will is.”

“He’s—he’s—”

Jason broke off, unable to say anything more. He shook his head. Tears streamed even fast down his cheeks. Snot began to trail from his left nostril.

“He’s _gone_ ,” said Percy, barely more than a whisper, like he couldn’t say it any louder. Like maybe if he didn’t say it any louder then maybe it wouldn’t be true. Maybe Will wouldn’t be… gone. “He was sitting—the truck that hit you, it hit him first, and—he didn’t make it.”

Percy’s words drifted over Nico like a breeze. He felt them, but they didn’t sink in right away. He shook his head. The truth swirled around in his brain, stirred up by denials and refusals and outright impossibilities that, for a long moment, he could do nothing except sit at their mercy, Jason’s hand serving as the only anchor to the living world.

“No,” he said, mostly because he felt like that was the only thing he could.

Will couldn’t be.

He couldn’t be dead.

He just couldn’t be.

“I’m sorry,” said Jason. “I’m so fucking sorry.”

But Will was.

Will was dead.

He had to be, because Jason hardly ever cursed, and when he did, he was serious. Like that time a couple of years ago when he had professed his love for Percy by saying _I fucking love you, okay?!_ Or that time back last Christmas when Nico had nearly burned down the house with an errant attempt to start a Christmastime fire and Jason had asked Nico how he could be so _damn_ stupid as to play with fire while drunk off his ass off spiked eggnog.

And now.

Now Jason wasn’t just sorry.

He was _fucking_ sorry, and he was _fucking_ serious, and life itself had lost all meaning. Love itself had lost all meaning. Nico felt like his heart had been ripped out of his chest, crushed beneath the truck that had stolen Will from him.

He wanted to die.

He wanted to fucking die.

Percy stumbled to Nico’s side. He reached for Nico’s hand, just beneath the cast, and wrapped his long, nimble fingers around him. Percy was trembling. Tears streamed down his face, and he was silent. Wordless.

Like no words existed in a world where Will didn’t.

Nico didn’t want to exist in a world that Will didn’t. But he was. And he didn’t know what to do with that, except to cling to Percy and to Jason and to try to remind himself to keep breathing, even though every breath took him farther and farther away from Will. He did all that—he sucked in his next breath and he held so tightly to Percy and Jason that his hands began to hurt—but it didn’t help. It didn’t change anything.

Will was dead.

 

It was funny, in the way that certain things like irony never were, but Nico thought of that wishing well the night before, about letting the gas station penny fall from his fingertips and wishing with all his might that Will would be happy for the rest of his life. As it turned out, Will was right.

There was power in a wishing well. 

So days later, when Nico was finally released from the hospital and Will’s body was already on its way back home to be buried with honor beneath the big oak tree on the back of his family’s cemetery, Nico grabbed one of the gas station pennies out of his beach bag and stumbled his way back to that old, run-down well on the edge of the beach. He stood over it for a long moment, and, here, Will was alive. Here, Will was urging him to make a wish, that thousands of wishes came true in these waters, and he held the penny above the well for a long time.

 _I wish_ , he thought. _I wish Will were still alive_.

He finally—finally—let it drop, and he wished with all his might—against all logic and rationale and belief—that this wish would come true, just like the last one had.

 

_Will was an enigma. He believed in wishing wells, in the power of pennies dropped into the pit of nothingness. He was alive when he was dead, bright and shining in Nico’s memory. In Nico’s heart. He was alive in the early mornings, when the sun peeked over the horizon for the first time that day and stained the pitch blackness black bright with all of its beautiful colors._

_He loved Nico. He loved the late nights, the cuddling. He loved the way Nico picked up Will’s own beaten-up old guitar and strummed the only few notes he knew. He loved the way that Nico would surprise him. A dinner after work. A concert in the next city over on a Wednesday night. A weekend trip away. Will was dead, stolen away long before his time, but he was alive in Nico’s heart._


End file.
